Scottish Fiction Mystery

When a fire ravages the local bookstore late one evening, Liss immediately fears the worst for owner Angie and her two young children. After the terrible blaze dies down, however, the family is nowhere to be found among the ruins. It's as if the three just vanished into smoke. Or, even stranger, like they never existed at all.

As a widowed mother of three, new love seems impossible for Freya - until she meets Duncan, and suddenly she feels alive again. While Freya’s older children are less than welcoming, six-year-old Sophie helps Duncan find his place in the family - but even Sophie harbours fears that threaten to overshadow any chance of a new start. The past is hard to leave behind when pictures of Freya’s idolised late husband hang in every room, and the more Duncan tries to find the source of Sophie’s anxiety, the more he is convinced that Reuben was not the perfect husband and father Freya remembers.

Ein erholsames Wochenende in den Highlands steht ihr bevor, bei dem sie traditionelle schottische Backwaren probieren, sich im Fliegenfischen versuchen und lernen kann, wie man einen „wee dram“, einen kleinen Schluck Whisky, genießt. Doch als sie in der Schlossbibliothek über eine Leiche stolpert, wird Gemma in einen Mordfall verwickelt, der so verwirrend ist wie ein kompliziertes Schottenmuster!

When forensic scientist Rhona MacLeod is brought in to analyse a shallow grave on Scotland’s west coast, she is disturbed by a bundle of twigs crafted into a stickman and left in the victim’s mouth. Then, when a young woman is reported missing from a nearby campsite with another sinister figurine left in her van, it seems that someone is targeting wild campers. An idyllic coastline known for providing peace and serenity, now the area is a hunting ground.

At 8 a.m., the first shots are fired. At 1 p.m., the police establish the gunman has a hostage. By 5 p.m., a siege is underway. At 9 p.m., DI Helen Birch walks, alone and unarmed, into an abandoned Borders farmhouse to negotiate with the killer. One day. One woman. One chance to get everyone out alive.

His victims are young, beautiful and coldly mutilated. He calls himself the Beijing Ripper. Li Yan, head of Beijing's serious crime squad, must stop him. Just as pathologist Margaret Campbell finds an insight into the killer's sick signature, Li receives a letter from the killer, betraying his cruel intentions. There's no way Li can misinterpret the Ripper's motives: he wants to tear Li and Campbell's lives apart, and write the darkest chapter in Beijing's history.

Struggling with long-buried family secrets and her own recent heartbreak, artist and pet portraitist Susie Mahl hopes her brief sojourn as an art tutor at a Scottish country house will prove a distraction. But Susie soon realises she has bigger problems than teaching her eclectic mix of students to draw a Highland cow. Beneath the beautiful landscapes of the Scottish Highlands and the grandeur of the Auchen Laggan Tosh estate lie hidden secrets. Can Susie work out what exactly is going on before it’s too late? And can anyone be trusted?

With the death toll at the Phoenix Festival rising, Jesse is one of the lucky ones. Unfortunately he can’t see things that way. As soon as he regains consciousness, there’s only one thing on his mind – REVENGE. He enlists Danny’s help to find the men who killed his girlfriend and intends to deliver justice in the old-fashioned way. Danny goes along with him, but only on the condition that Jesse doesn’t get his hands dirty when they’re on the job. Unfortunately for Danny, even the best made plans can go awry. The explosive and final instalment of the Jesse Garon series.

The opening story in this collection follows Vinny, Kevin, and a mourning family from Liverpool on a journey to Wales. What should be a simple trip turns into something much darker. A cross between Roddy Doyle and Ken Follett, this political storytelling meets you wherever you are on life’s journey, and stays with you.

It is a serendipitous encounter for the hapless DI Greg Byrne when retired sleuth James Munro stumbles upon his crime scene. And perhaps also for Munro himself, who, his protégé Charlie West having firmly snapped his apron strings, needs other lambs to wean. The day is far less auspicious for the victim in the affair, the unfortunate property developer Rebecca Barlow, who has been trussed up like a scarecrow in her yard. Though occurring off DI West’s Ayrshire patch, the investigation will soon intertwine with one of her own.

The 30th gritty mystery in Quintin Jardine's bestselling Bob Skinner series, not to be missed by readers of Ian Rankin and Peter May. Former Chief Constable Bob Skinner may have left the police service, but he's never far from a case. When his old mentor on the force, Jimmy Proud, finds himself in a desperate situation, Skinner gets pulled into a murder investigation that's been closed for 30 years.

Isle of Iona, 1927 Cast away on a remote locale, Jane's latest assignment depends on concealing her identity and blending in at an occult gathering. Not even her fiancé, Redvers, can be too close as she uncovers the truth about Robert Nightingale, enigmatic leader of the Order of the Golden Dawn--a group made up of supernatural ceremonies, influential people, and an undefinable darkness

The Beetle tells the tale of an evil, ancient Egyptian spirit seeking revenge on an up-and-coming British politician, Paul Lessingham. The shape-shifting creature that pursues Lessingham is possessed of hypnotic powers and takes different forms, both male and female, as well as morphing into a beetle - a figure that induces terror in its victims.

When the body of a journalist is found in a traditional Shetland boat, Detective Inspector Willow Reeves is drafted in to head up the investigation. Jimmy Perez has been out of the loop, but his local knowledge is needed, and he decides to help the inquiry. Originally a Shetlander, the journalist had left the islands years before to make a name for himself in London, leaving a scandal in his wake. He had few friends in Shetland, so why was he back?

Long held secrets, revenge, and murder. Eliza Thomson investigates…a suspicious accident, a hand-written note, and an old parish priest. A homecoming doesn’t go as planned in St. Giles; a small village nestled on the east coast of Scotland. Widow, mother, and former beauty, Mrs. Scott once walked away from all things dear to her. She’s a woman with a past, and now she’s back, determined to exact revenge for previous wrongs. But, somebody knows her plans, and they’ll do whatever it takes to silence her.

Forty breathtaking short stories of gripping adventures, secrets and strange conspiracies. 'The Dust That Was Barren' by P. C. Wren. 'The Deserter' by Stacy Aumonier. 'The Lighthouse on Shivering Sand' by J. S. Fletcher. 'The Secret of the Smoked Spectacles' by William Le Queux. 'The 39 Steps' by John Buchan. 'Three Pennyworth of Luck' by Basil Murray. 'The Secret of Dr. Vaux’s Intrigue' by William Le Queux. 'A Thread of Scarlet' by J. J. Bell. 'How I Became a Secret Agent' by Dr. A. K. Graves.

When the gods realize the beast they unleashed should never have been unshackled, they throw together modern-day Emma and ancient Torin to set the world aright. Now the mismatched pair must fully embrace their powers, meld them, and send the demon back to his hell. But what Emma and Torin don't realize is there's a troubling side-effect to melding magic. Hearts tend to get tangled, too, even when the two souls aren't comfortable in each other's worlds.

Mary Rose Moreland and Simon Blake are the perfect couple: successful young professionals in Philadelphia, attractive, madly in love, and ready to start a life together. When they travel to England for Simon to ask her parents' permission to marry Mary Rose, he learns an unsettling secret: Mary Rose disappeared when she was a little girl while the family was vacationing on a remote Scottish island. She reappeared mysteriously 33 days later in the exact same spot without a scratch on her and no memory of what had happened.

From acclaimed author Quintin Jardine comes the latest gripping mystery in his bestselling Bob Skinner series, perfect for fans of Ian Rankin and Peter May.

Jack West Jr has made it to the Supreme Labyrinth. Now he faces one last race—against multiple rivals, against time, against the collapse of the universe itself—a headlong race that will end at a throne inside the fabled labyrinth. But the road will be hard. For this is a maze like no other: a maze of mazes. Uncompromising and complex. Demanding and deadly. It all comes down to this. It ends here—now—in the most lethal and dangerous place Jack has encountered in all of his many adventures.